The utilization of lightweight materials in a golf club head is generally known. The utilization of lightweight materials in a golf club head removes mass from specific portions of the golf club head and allows it to be redistributed to more optimized areas. U.S. Pat. No. 6,612,938 to Murphy et al. illustrates one of the earlier attempts to use exotic materials in a golf club head such as plies of pre-preg material.
However, despite the potential gains in the discretionary mass gained by the utilization of such lightweight material, the utilization of such material usually comes with some drawbacks. More specifically, the utilization of such lightweight material may generally come with an undesirable acoustic characteristic, making the golf club undesirable to a golfer irrespective of performance.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,064,197 to Eddy back in 1991 provides one of the earlier attempts to adjust the acoustic characteristics of a golf club by providing a first forward chamber in the head opening to the club head face, wherein the forward chamber vibrates at a given primary frequency.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,651,975 to Soracco provided another example of an attempt to address the acoustic characteristics associated with golf clubs that utilizes exotic material. More specifically, Soracco provided a golf club head with sound tuning composite members forming at least a portion of the surface of the golf club head.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 8,849,635 to Hayase et al. went above and beyond the mere basic design of a golf club head for acoustic characteristics and even made an attempt to predict modal damping ratio of composite golf club heads.
Despite the above, none of the references provide a method to improve the performance of a golf club head by providing a way to improve the performance of a golf club head utilizing advanced materials all while providing a clean way to address the degradation of the acoustic characteristics of the golf club head. Hence, it can be seen from the above that a golf club design that is capable of achieving both of the goal of incorporating exotic lightweight materials in order to increase discretionary mass as well as achieving a desirable acoustic characteristic while minimizing the undesirable sound and feel of the golf club head.